Loudoun County Republican Committee, Eric Cantor, Fort Monroe Authority

Because state Senate candidate Caren Merrick won't release her National Rifle Association questionnaire despite touting her "A-" NRA rating, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

The bronze goes to the Loudoun County Republican Committee and its disturbing sense of humor. The Too Conservative blog reported (and condemned) Monday that an LCRC email to supporters titled "Halloween 2011" had a cartoon montage of zombie Democrats, including a zombie Barack Obama with a bullet hole in his head. (See image at right.)

The email stated, "LCRC members and Republican candidates: We are going to vanquish the zombies with clear thinking conservative principles and a truckload of Republican candy...It's fun and a great way to represent our candidates to a ton of voters (and their kids) just before the election."

This imagery is beyond repulsive. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head earlier this year, and there is an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to "Barack Obama assassination threats." Gov. Bob McDonnell called the cartoon "shameful and offensive," and state GOP Chairman Pat Mullins said, "The disgusting image used today on a mass e-mail has no place in our politics. Ever."

LCRC Chairman Mark Sell issued a non-apology apology statement in response:

"The Loudoun County Republican Committee yesterday sent an email to its members that represented a light-hearted attempt to inject satire humor into the Halloween holiday. Apparently, some individuals have interpreted an image of Barack Obama that appeared within the email as intending to portray the president as a victim of a violent crime. Nothing could be further from the truth, and we deeply and sincerely apologize to the president and anyone who viewed the image if that was the impression that was left. The LCRC deplores any effort to display, suggest or promote violence against the president or any other political figure."

"I'm sorry if" or blaming the recipient for not having a sense of humor is not an apology. We'll see if Sell finds it funny when he's thrown out with the garbage on the next trash day.

The silver goes to U.S. Majority Leader Eric Cantor – stimulus hypocrite. He has lied repeatedly that the 2009 stimulus didn't work or create jobs, being called out by PolitiFact in May for his claim.

Well, as Ronald Reagan once slipped, "Facts are stupid things." Newsweek revealed Sunday that the Virginia delegation, including Cantor, R-7th, petitioned the Department of Transportation for subsidies for a high-speed rail service through central Virginia. For example, Cantor and Rep. Bobby Scott, D-3rd, wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on April 29, 2009: "High-speed rail provides a sensible and viable solution to our region's transportation challenges. ... Providing a high-speed rail service from Washington, D.C. to Richmond will drive economic development throughout our region for many years to come. ... We believe it is truly an investment in our economic future." What they're referring to is the Federal Railroad Administration's High-Speed Rail Strategic Plan, an $8 billion program launched that month with stimulus funding.

LaHood wrote to Cantor and his colleagues that November, "I look forward to working with you as we begin to realize the Obama Administration's far-reaching vision of building a national passenger rail network."

We have a twofer for Cantor: He apparently thought Ann Arbor, Michigan, was an ideal place on Monday to redeliver his speech on how taxing the rich is not very nice, and he was challenged by Occupy protesters. Cantor said protesters' "ire and hatred toward certain people is not something that is constructive and I don't think it's reflective of the majority of America." Worst Virginians has already called out Cantor's hypocrisy on criticizing Occupy Wall Street while embracing the tea party with divisive and derisive rhetoric.

Mr. Cantor, do you feel lighter on your feet because you aren't weighed down by any principles?

But chalk up one more for government incompetence on the Peninsula, our winner is the Fort Monroe Authority.

The Daily Press of Newport News did some in-depth reporting and revealed Saturday that military family apartments at Fort Monroe outside Hampton (so-called Wherry houses) are in dilapidated condition. Before many tenants were told to move because of Hurricane Irene damage, families and officials discovered asbestos, cracked foundations, peeling lead paint, mold, and severe leaks.

A house occupied by a wounded warrior was found to be structurally unsound and unsafe, and is slated for demolition. One vacated mother left the houses with her family entirely because of her children's health conditions and age; her rent is now more than double it was at Fort Monroe. "They [the Fort Monroe Authority] should not have ever rented out these apartments. They already knew the problems. They had a full year ahead of them," she said. Another woman said her husband has suffered respiratory problems since moving into Fort Monroe.

In an email obtained by the Daily Press, Cmd. Sgt. Maj. John R. Calpena wrote, "You can see in the pictures the bricks separating and the windows coming apart. This is a media nightmare waiting to happen." Well, it happened. The Fort Monroe Authority executive director, who took over last month, said, "I had not been in the job 24 hours before I had to close them down" and cited "years and years of neglect" at the apartments.

Because the Fort Monroe Authority took responsibility of the apartments from the Army in August of last year and it allocates funds for maintenance and repairs, this is ultimately the authority's responsibility. Now under new leadership, hopefully the authority can set things right.

Virginia's troops and their families sacrifice plenty already, and they absolutely deserve better.

That's the Fort Monroe Authority, "What do you mean you don't want fungus growing in your walls?," today's Worst Virginian in the World!

Bryce Reeves, Ernest Grubbs, Eric Cantor

Because Virginia Military Institute Keydets' football mascot is Moe the Kangaroo (for some reason), here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

Our first nominee is Bryce Reeves, Republican candidate for the 17th Senate District against Edd Houck in one of the key elections to determine control of the chamber.

Reeves, a small-business owner, is running on common GOP themes of low taxes and deregulation, touting his experience as a businessman who has balanced budgets. The Washington Post profiled the race on Sunday and reported, "Reeves rails against government red tape that stifles small businesses, particularly startups. Asked to name three burdensome state regulations that should be rescinded, however, he drew a blank, saying that's what the expertise of legislative committees is for." Swing and a miss. Reeves then said, "You have to look at all of them. I haven't been approached about what committees they'd like me to serve on. I'm kind of at a loss for specific legislation off the top of my head right now."

Reeves has said that his first political memory was Schoolhouse Rock's "I'm Just a Bill." Maybe that's the extent of his political know-how.

Our runner-up is Ernest Grubbs, a now-former Bedford County sheriff's deputy and high school resource officer. The Roanoke Times reported Saturday that Grubbs was charged with 12 counts of taking indecent liberties with a child by a person in a custodial relationship – he had a relationship with a 16-year-old female student.

Among items police seized included a 2XL shirt and notes that the girl's mother found in her room. The student told authorities that she had had sexual intercourse with Grubbs at several locations. Additionally, police found a box in Grubbs' office with drug paraphernalia.

Had he given her hush money, Grubbs would've attained the slimeball trifecta.

But our winner is our good friend U.S. Majority Leader Eric Cantor – coward. He was scheduled to deliver a speech at the University of Pennsylvania's business school Friday about the economy and wealth but backed off when he learned it would be open to the public and protestors would be allowed on campus, although not inside for the event.

Cantor's office said it had to cancel because UPenn "was unable to ensure that the attendance policy previously agreed to could be met." UPenn responded by saying that events such as this are always open to the public and that's how Cantor's speech was billed.

The written speech itself was less than inspiring. Cantor, R-7th, talks about how his immigrant grandmother worked hard for a better life for her family, and he touted a "Steve Jobs Plan": "Those who are successful not only create good jobs and services that make our lives better, they also give back and help everyone move just a little bit further up the ladder and everybody wins." (The Huffington Post's Jason Linkins pointed out that an Ivy League school was a strange stage for a speech on "a fair shot at the American dream," since few of those students, professors, and alumni face the same challenges as most Americans.)

If only entrepreneurship and philanthropy alone could re-balance incomes and help the needy. Former Rep. Alan Grayson correctly observed this month that 24 million people in America "can't find a full-time job," 50 million "can't see a doctor when they're sick," 47 million people need government help to feed themselves, and 15 million families owe more than the value of their home. The Fed reported last week that outstanding student loans will top $1 trillion this year; a finance grad student observed, "It's going to create a generation of wage slavery." Since the early 1990s, incomes for the top 1% have soared, while middle class incomes have collapsed. Working hard, playing by the rules, and budgeting personal finances is not enough anymore to guarantee success or even an equal shot at success.

To quote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "It's all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps."

That's Eric "Let them eat bootstraps" Cantor, C (for chicken)-7th, today's Worst Virginian in the World!

Eric Cantor, Giles County School Board, Ann Marie McKenzie

Because it took a 1967 Supreme Court case to invalidate Virginia's ban against interracial marriages, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

First up is U.S. Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is taking on President Obama's latest jobs bill by ... lying like a rug.

He told a jobs roundtable in Richmond this week, "We don't agree on more stimulus money," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Thursday. "We don't believe the stimulus worked last time. We don't believe we ought to incur hundreds of billions of dollars of additional debt now again to get the same result."

The initial Obama plan would actually be funded with a half-percent surtax on incomes topping $1 million, starting in January 2013, to cover $35 billion to help states rehire teachers and first responders. If Cantor, R-7th, opposes the plan because it raises taxes, he should just say so.

But on a broader point, Cantor has parroted one of the biggest lies about the Obama presidency: that the original Recovery Act stimulus "failed" or didn't create any jobs. In fact, Cantor in May said the stimulus "failed to get people back to work," a statement PolitiFact found False. A handful of independent analyses found that the stimulus created or saved millions of jobs, with the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finding that the plan is responsible for up to 3.6 million jobs.

If the majority leader thinks that the public will start to believe a blatant lie if it is repeated often enough, Democrats can do their part by telling voters that Mr. Cantor's head is made of green cheese.

Our runner-up is another public school entity, this time the Giles County School Board. The board voted to allow Ten Commandments displays to be set up in schools with other historical documents. A student and parent have sued, citing First Amendment infringement.

Trying to mask the obvious and inherent religiosity of Scripture by associating it with legal or historical documents such as the Declaration of Independence or Constitution in a government-sponsored forum is nothing new. However, The Roanoke Times reported Wednesday that Giles came up with a new legal strategy: A private citizen was intended to erect the display, and no public funds or employees were designated for it.

The Supreme Court would not be amused. The court ruled in 1980 in a similar case, 

"The pre-eminent purpose of posting the Ten Commandments, which do not confine themselves to arguably secular matters, is plainly religious in nature, and the posting serves no constitutional educational function. That the posted copies are financed by voluntary private contributions is immaterial, for the mere posting under the auspices of the legislature provides the official support of the state government that the Establishment Clause prohibits."

The Giles board also tried this month to unmask the anonymous plaintiffs in the case. The plaintiffs sought anonymity because of the heated acrimony over the case in the community and attacks on the civil liberties groups who helped bring the case to court. The chairman of the county Board of Supervisors himself said, "We won't let an anonymous coward tell us how to run our business."

The fact that this lawsuit has brought out the worst in people demonstrates why the Constitution forbids government-sponsored religion. If they had any sense, the school board members would do away with its Ten Commandment policy and instead consider implementing a world religions elective class in high schools for students to objectively learn about religious philosophies and ideas. But that "if" may be asking for too much.

But our winner is Ann Marie McKenzie, chair of the University of Virginia's Honor Committee, for a battle against UVa's student newspaper, The Cavalier Daily.

UVa's honor code and enforcement are among the strictest in the nation: Any students accused of academic dishonesty face expulsion after a trial by their peers. The Daily told its readers in an editorial on Sept. 12 that an unidentified Daily writer was exposed as a plagiarist, using entire copy from other media sources verbatim without attribution.

However, revealing the plagiarism and saying that the matter had been referred to the Honor Committee got the top managers in trouble. A week later, five top Daily student officials were charged by McKenzie, a Centreville native, with violating UVa's Standards of Conduct procedural confidentiality rules. Soon thereafter, the charges against all the managers but Editor-in-Chief Jason Ally were dropped. Ally's charges were dismissed on Tuesday when the University Judiciary Committee found that it had no jurisdiction to decide the case, citing a clause in the body's constitution that says it "shall not have jurisdiction over the exercise of journalistic and editorial functions by student groups." The Executive Committee, however, would not dismiss the charges.

The very idea that independent student media – or any independent journalistic entity for that matter – can face serious retribution from governing bodies or their executives for reporting the truth chills the whole notion of freedom of the press. The Student Press Law Center and ACLU said McKenzie's actions smack of censorship. Additionally, an SPLC attorney argued that the the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, upon which the Honor Committee's confidentiality policy is founded, does not apply to student media. The Cavalier Daily defended its decision in a Tuesday editorial: "It was necessary for the managing board to publish the editorial about recently uncovered plagiarism incidents because the paper strives to remain accountable to readers for the accuracy and authenticity of the content that appears in its pages." Indeed, any newspaper's subscribers or advertisers would value the honesty and accountability of its production and product. Editorial decisions are also often business decisions.

Subsequently, the Daily is worried about how this case will hurt student organizations' relationship with enforcement bodies. In a Thursday editorial, editors expressed concern about the jurisdiction and bureaucracy:

"The policy that the UJC embraced in the case against The Cavalier Daily allows for any future jurisdiction questions to be settled in trial. If the administration cannot clarify jurisdiction matters prior to that stage, however, then limitations provided in the constitution are effectively meaningless since they can be altered by any trial panel. This wrests the constitutional amendment process from the student body, doing grave harm to the principle of student self-governance."

Hopefully, McKenzie has not set a worrisome precedence and damaged what UVa calls its "community of trust." UVa founder Thomas Jefferson said it best in 1787, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

That's Ann Marie McKenzie, her favorite dish being sacrificial lamb with mint, today's Worst Virginian in the World!

Bob McDonnell, Portsmouth Social Services, Eric Cantor

Because anal and oral sex are a Class 6 felony and a "crime against nature" in Virginia, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

First up is Gov. Bob McDonnell. PolitiFact's new Bob-O-Meter called out Bob on Monday for his failure to follow through on a plan to raise revenue through toll roads on the North Carolina border.

His campaign said during his gubernatorial run, "As Governor, Bob McDonnell will provide an additional dedicated revenue stream for essential transportation needs by tolling travelers coming into Virginia at the North Carolina border on I-95 and I-85." The Federal Highway Administration approved the I-95 plan last month, but federal regulations allow the state to only use tolls on one interstate at a time. Federal officials also want toll funds to be spent mainly where the tolls are installed.

The Bob-O-Meter found, "His communications chief says McDonnell knew back then that federal regulations allow Virginia to toll only one Interstate at the time and the candidate was hopeful of changing the rules. The regulation remains in place, however, and the McDonnell administration has not lobbied to alter it."

Evidently not all toll roads lead to campaign promises.

Our runner-up is Portsmouth Social Services. The office's director approved a $40,000 payment of taxpayer money for New Orleans Saints player Anthony Hargrove to visit during the July 4 weekend for speaking events to area foster parents, children, and staff.

The Virginian-Pilot of Hampton Roads reported Friday that the city's top prosecutor has asked the state to audit the Hargrove paper trail. The Commonwealth's Attorney's office doesn't think there was any criminal wrongdoing, "but an audit wouldn't be a bad idea with the situation."

What makes this case bizarre is that Hargrove's management company had never charged for speaking engagements before. Portsmouth social services wasn't aware that he didn't charge for such events, and they simply researched how much NFL players often charge for these services, as well as compensating for his family to travel with him.

To quote Mayor Kenny Wright when the story broke originally last month, "Woah, are you kidding me?"

But our winner is U.S. Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Unsurprisingly, he has joined plutocrats or right-wingers like Michael Bloomberg, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, and CNBC commentators in portraying the We Are The 99%/Occupy Wall Street protesters as dangerous fanatics.

Cantor, R-7th (Richmond, Culpeper, Orange), told the ironically named Voters Values Summit in Washington on Friday:

"This administration's failed policies have resulted in an assault on many of our nation's bedrock principles. If you read the newspapers today, I, for one, am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and the other cities across the country. And believe it or not, some in this town, have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans. But you sent us here to fight for you and all Americans."

(He also vowed to defund abortion providers. Because that will create jobs, or something.)

Cantor is Mr. 1%: His personal wealth is upwards of $7.5 million, and his fundraising committees took in $2 million from real estate, investment, and securities companies last year. The Washington Post detailed in July how Cantor has embraced the tea-party wing of the GOP not because of its cause but for gamesmanship to protect his corporate benefactors. So it's no surprise he'd be defending Wall Street.

Yet, others in his position haven't taken his side. Republican Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that he understands the OWS protests: "I would just say very generally, I think people are quite unhappy with the state of the economy and what's happening. They blame, with some justification, the problems in the financial sector for getting us into this mess, and they're dissatisfied with the policy response here in Washington. And at some level, I can't blame them." Even Cantor's colleague Rep. Robert Hurt, R-5th (Charlottesville, Danville, Martinsville), who is anything but an enemy of Wall Street, told The Daily Progress of Charlottesville on Friday:

"The protests in New York I think reflect what the American people are feeling, tremendous frustration about the fact that we have 9.1 percent unemployment. ... To the extent that there is corporate greed, to the extent that there are Wall Street rip-offs, those are things that I think are properly within the function of government to make sure that we have transparent markets, markets that are honest and that you don't have people being stolen from."

However, Cantor had no problem pretending to commiserate with the tea party during a 9/12 rally two years ago. He said on stage that those protesters were "fighting on the fighting lines of what we know is a battle for our democracy." He added, "People are beginning to wake up and see a country they don't really recognize." The only people pitting Americans against Americans are brazen opportunists like Cantor, who doesn't have to worry about his life being turned upside down in the name of "austerity."

Majority Leader Eric Cantor, 100% hypocrite and fraud, today's Worst Virginian in the World!

Fairfax County School Board, Jeff Caruso, Eric Cantor

Because the state Senate voted to make "Oh Shenandoah" the official state song in 2006, even though the original tune refers to the Indian chief rather than the valley or river, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

First up is the Fairfax County School Board. Teacher and soccer coach Sean Lanigan was acquitted last year of molesting a sixth-grader at Centre Ridge Elementary in a gym storage room (the girl lied about the incident because she was mad at him), but he racked up tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills.

The school board offered Lanigan much less, just $60,000 and a condition he not sue any school officials, The Washington Post's The State of NoVa blog reported Tuesday. He is suing the school board for a no-strings-attached $107,838, the most he can be reimbursed for in his case under county policy after acquittal for an employment-related criminal charge. The police bungled the case, but the school district followed along by not getting Lanigan's side of the story before contacting the authorities or before police confronted and accused him.

Although a jury acquitted Lanigan after just 47 minutes of deliberation because of a lack of evidence and blatant deceit on the part of accusers and witnesses, he talked to the Post in May about his ordeal. He was transferred twice, suspended without pay, had his face plastered all over the media and Internet, spent time in a protective wing in jail, and was pushed by prosecutors to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault.

After his acquittal, the school district waited three months to reinstate him, burdened his family by transferring him, and gave him a part-time position. When he did return to teaching full time, the district reprimanded him with demeaning guidelines, such as: "Avoid placing yourself in close physical proximity to any student, particularly in a manner that could be interpreted as sexual. ... Do not be alone in your office or other rooms with a student unless the door is open and you and the student are visible from outside the room."

Well no wonder the school district isn't paying Lanigan back – they still think he's culpable.

The runner-up is Jeff Caruso, executive director of the Virginia Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state's dioceses.

After the General Assembly passed a law in February that reclassified abortion clinics as hospitals, the state Department of Health laid out new guidelines to regulate them as such, which would be one of the strictest, if not the strictest, in the country. The state Board of Health must approve the regulations this month, and Gov. Bob McDonnell must sign off on them before year's end.

Although supporters claim the new policies are about health, many have little or nothing to do with patient well-being (exam rooms must be 80 square feet, public corridors must be 5 feet wide, ceilings must be 7 feet, 10 inches tall), and the state's abortion providers are worried that they will have to close because they cannot afford to bring the clinics up to code.

The Virginia Catholic Conference has supported the changes, but a line was crossed in a press release on Wednesday authored by Caruso: 

"Abortion is not health care because it ends lives rather than healing them. The existence of the abortion industry under the guise of 'health care' is, however, a sad and tragic reality in our Commonwealth and our country. ... These items and so many others contained in the proposal deserve strong support from those who consider themselves pro-life and those who consider themselves pro-choice. Indeed, it is hard to imagine why groups that say they are concerned about women's health would oppose these standards."

Mr. Caruso should apologize to all women who had to have abortions because of serious health risks. The Catholic Church – which still opposes contraception – its entities, and its followers can believe and argue what they want on the morality of abortion. But this argument about health care, and that a health exception for legal abortions is meaningless because any woman or physician can claim a health risk, is personally offensive.

My friend's boyfriend impregnated her a few years ago, but because she already had kids, she was going to put this one up for adoption. Unfortunately, her blood pressure soared, creating a tangible health risk, and she got an abortion even though she normally would not have. If there was only a life-threatening exception for legal abortions, then she might've had to suffer or risk suffering a debilitating stroke or heart attack before being treated.

In general, health reasons for abortions have included gestational diabetes, cancer, and cystic fibrosis. Hospitals often refer women to outpatient or other inpatient treatment locations for abortions, or women have to find clinics elsewhere on their own. In a few sample cases, one Nebraska woman conceived after undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, risking complications of the disease and birth defects, but a hospital wouldn't treat her so she sought out an abortion clinic; a Louisiana hospital would not terminate a woman's pregnancy because of her cardiomyopathy despite doctors' warnings that the pregnancy might kill her, so she had to travel 100 miles by ambulance to Texas for an abortion; and another woman traveled 200 miles by ambulance for an abortion because of severe pregnancy-related renal failure.

Most religion-affiliated hospitals prohibit their doctors from performing abortions, and groups like the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops want a broad legal conscientious objection to not provide or cover patients' birth control. The existence of the religion industry under the guise of "health care" is, however, a sad and tragic reality in our commonwealth and our country.

But our winner is U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, again. (Eric, there is no prize or award for being named Worst Virginian the most number of times in a year!) Cantor, R-7th, has been in the news quite a bit this past week because of his comments that natural disaster relief should be offset with budget cuts elsewhere, even though his district and state were hit by an earthquake and hurricane in the same week.

For starters, Cantor has been rebuked by Republican Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey and McDonnell himself. Christie told a crowd, "Our people are suffering now, and they need support now. And they [Congress] can all go down there and get back to work and figure out budget cuts later. We need the support now here in New Jersey, and that’s not a Republican or a Democratic issue." McDonnell said on radio, "My concern is that we help people in need. For the FEMA money that’s going to flow, it's up to them on how they get it. I don't think it's the time to get into that [deficit] debate."

Cantor has softened his stance some. The Richmond Times-Dispatch quoted him Wednesday as saying that relief will not be withheld until funds are offset. "These are disasters that there is a precedent for a federal role. I believe there's an appropriate federal role. And the monies will be there," Cantor said. Yet, a former senior FEMA official told TPMDC about the risks involved with offsetting in general: 

"They've addressed offsets before, and unfortunately offsets were from [Housing and Urban Development] money – community development block grants – which are a good tool for recovering from disaster. ... Is anybody vehemently opposed to offsets? No. But they need to make sure that if they do them that, one, it happens quickly and, two, it doesn't come from programs that help recovery."

Additionally, The Huffington Post reported Wednesday that Cantor voted against offsetting disaster relief when an amendment came up for vote in 2004 after Tropical Storm Gaston, which also affected Virginia. Cantor's office told HuffPo, "We are living in different times," and cited the higher national debt as a reason for offsetting now.

If that's the case, Cantor should argue for the Bush-era tax cuts to lapse. After all, the percentage of publicly-held debt of the GDP will be 100% in 2021 with the tax cuts in place compared to 60% without them. Cantor himself said last year, "If you have less revenues coming in to the federal government, and more expenditures, what does that add up to? Certainly you are going to dig the hole deeper."

That's Eric – "I was against offsetting disaster relief before I was for it!" – Cantor, today's Worst Virginian in the World!

I will be on vacation this weekend, but Worst Virginians will return Sept. 9.

Latrell Scott, Ken Cuccinelli, Eric Cantor

Because the Old Dominion must've done something to deserve an earthquake, wildfire, and hurricane in the same week, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

The first is Latrell Scott, who is one and done as University of Richmond's football coach. He resigned Tuesday after being arrested for a DWI and refusing to take a breathalyzer test.

Scott was previously arrested for a DWI in 2004 when he was an assistant at Virginia Military Institute, an incident UR was aware of when they hired him in December 2009, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He is being replaced by the offensive coordinator in the interim.

This is an untimely end to Scott's career and 6-5 season with the Spiders, which started as an assistant in 2004 as Coach Dave Clawson was turning UR into a perennial playoff contender and laid the foundation for the 2008 Football Championship Subdivision championship with Coach Mike London.

It is unfortunate that unlike his predecessors who went on to coach at the bowl level – Clawson at Bowling Green and London at Virginia – Scott's single-season tenure at UR went in the opposite direction.

The runner-up is climate-change denier and bully Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and his assault on higher education. Between telling colleges that they cannot ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and trying to force guns on campuses, Cooch has harassed the University of Virginia over the phony "Climategate" scandal.

"Climategate" started in November 2009 when global-warming skeptics seized on hacked emails from a British university between scientists that they say proved global warming was a hoax concocted with bogus research. Cooch's ire was directly at then-UVa professor and "Climategate" figure Michael Mann, citing a taxpayer fraud law to investigate him for falsifying research with academic grants. On April 23 of last year, Cooch demanded that UVa turn over six years worth of files and correspondence, and that $485,000 in research grants be returned. It has been tied up in the courts ever since.

Cooch fully embraced the "Climategate" label in a Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial in February last year, accusing the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of "deception" and "unreliable" findings. "These materials suggest that a small group of academics who have received large grants and who are professionally invested in climate change aggressively manipulated the peer-review process to prevent the publication of contrary views," he wrote.

Mann, who has said he has received violent threats for his work, responded to critics saying that although there are some "minor" errors in his research, the overall consensus that global warming is at least partly man-made and has an impact on climate is solid. Well, Mann, now at Penn State, has been vindicated – again.

An independent report in Britain last July found that the scientists and their research were trustworthy. The Commerce Department this February concluded that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had not manipulated data. A panel at Penn State found last February that Mann individually did not falsify, suppress, or misuse data or information in his research. Additionally, just last week PolitiFact rounded up information on climate-change agencies and scientists, and argued that there is a broad consensus over the sources of climate change.

Now, on Tuesday, the Office of Inspector General for the federal National Science Foundation released a report that found no wrongdoing with Mann's research. "The research in question was originally completed over 10 years ago. Although the Subject's data is still available and still the focus of significant critical examination, no direct evidence has been presented that indicates the Subject fabricated the raw data he used for his research or falsified his results." Although debate over statistical procedures is appropriate, the NSF said, "Such scientific debate is ongoing but does not, in itself, constitute evidence of research misconduct."

One of the hacked emails portrayed climate-change skeptics as Gilligan's Island castaways marooned on a floating ice cap. That is completely unfair, and those scientists should apologize to Bob Denver's family – Gilligan has more intelligence and integrity than people like Cooch ever will.

But our winner is U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. The epicenter of the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the East Coast on Tuesday was in Louisa County, part of Cantor's 7th District.

Total damage caused by the quake is estimated at up to $300 million, and less than a third is insured. Locally, an elementary school may have to be condemned, and several businesses, homes, and older buildings were damaged. The Washington Monument and National Cathedral were also damaged.

But Cantor reassured his constituents and those affected by the quake by saying in Culpeper on Wednesday, “All of us know that the federal government is busy spending money it doesn’t have.” Wait, what?

Sure enough, Cantor told reporters that any federal relief would have to be offset by budget cuts elsewhere, although he wasn’t sure where. “When there's a disaster there's an appropriate federal role and we will find the monies. But we’ve had discussions about these things before and those monies will be offset with appropriate savings or cost-cutting elsewhere in order to meet the priority of the federal government's role in a situation like this.”

Because natural disasters can be scheduled and canceled like committee meetings, naturally.

Cantor tweeted last week, “It is critical that in the days and months ahead, we do our best to minimize unnecessary uncertainty, so America's economy can grow.” But “unnecessary uncertainty” when it comes to disaster relief? Not on Cantor’s watch.

Cantor said the same thing in May after a tornado killed 160 in Joplin, Missouri. He was rebuked by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican whose state has endured Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill in recent years. “I think disaster relief is not predictable. Emergencies caused by tornadoes, hurricanes are not predictable. ...,” he told reporters in June. “And if [Congress] didn't have a place to offset it, they should still go in and do it.”

Meanwhile, Hurricane Irene is headed toward the Tidewater region, and that damage would be considerably worse. Gov. Bob McDonnell has already declared a state of emergency, but Cantor’s still standing firm on the offset cuts. Cantor’s spokesperson told TPMDC on Thursday, “We aren't going to speculate on damage before it happens, period. But, as you know, Eric has consistently said that additional funds for federal disaster relief ought to be offset with spending cuts.” Well, his office did say “ought to be.” But where will these cuts come from? Will it be from programs like home-heating aid for the poor, Pell Grants for college students, or flood insurance for flood-plain residents?

This is the same man who in March, after the Japan earthquake and tsunami, defended a Republican proposal to cut $450 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The U.S. Geological Survey was also on the chopping block, according to the Richmond Examiner. "We've all got to do more with less here," Cantor said. Both agencies monitor earthquakes and seismic activity.

Cantor played a central role in exacerbating the debt-ceiling crisis that led to a downgrade in U.S. credit by towing the tea-party line (for his Wall Street donors, not for the tea party itself) on deep cuts to even entitlements but with no new revenue, the latter being a source of consternation for Standard & Poor in its decision to downgrade. Now Congress has a record-low approval rating of 13%. The quake may have damaged monuments in Washington, but Cantor is largely responsible for damage done to Congress.

That's Majority Leader – "leader" being just an ironic nickname – Eric Cantor, today's Worst Virginian in the World!

Fluvanna County, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Eric Cantor

The bronze goes to Fluvanna County. The Fluco Blog owner Bryan Rothamel sued the county in December over an ordinance that forbids anyone from using the county seal without permission from the Board of Supervisors. The ordinance was rewritten in February to mirror the state code on seals.

The Daily Progress of Charlottesville reported Friday that Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed a brief in federal court this month siding with Rothamel. Cuccinelli wrote that as long as the seal is not used in a “fraudulent or misleading” manner, its use is protected by law and the First Amendment. Fluvanna County may have shot themselves in the foot by including “unless such use is specifically authorized by law” in its ordinance.

Additionally, county attorneys came up with this strange analogy in its own brief: “Mr. Rothamel has no more right to use, for his own purposes, the county’s seal than he would to drive a county automobile or build a home in a county park.”

It’d be a shame if these attorneys have a right to use county money to defend such a ridiculous policy.

Today’s silver goes to the editorial writers at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, who are apparently intent on helping parent company Media General lose even more print ad revenue.

In a piece published Sunday, RTD scorned federal regulators for hurting small businesses with policies enacted after a slew of toy recalls and foodborne outbreaks a few years ago. Their solution? Support the tea party:

“The more establishment parts of the GOP are often comfortable with both big government and big business. When it comes to rolling back Washington, the tea party has done much of the heavy lifting lately. If anyone reins in the regulatory excesses that are smothering small businesses built by bohemians in Birkenstocks, it could be the rabble-rousers of the radical right. Cheese and tea, anyone?”

Timeliness and attribution, anyone? The law that empowered the Food and Drug Administration after the outbreaks was signed into law seven months ago. The quotes from an FDA official and cheesemaker are from six months ago. RTD’s only more recent example of federal overreach was an artisanal cheesemaker that the feds closed nine months ago.

Worse yet, RTD incorrectly said that cheesemaker is in Wisconsin rather than Washington, and the unattributed quotes are lifted from The Washington Post and Reason magazine.

This outdated, lazily written free marketing for the tea party brings new meaning to the phrase “Do you want cheese with that whine?”

Speaking of which, our winner is U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. He has apparently been on an extended vacation in the Twilight Zone during the debt-ceiling debate.

On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Cantor, R-7th, supports a short-term debt-ceiling deal for before the 2012 elections. “Mr. Cantor called the president’s insistence on a deal that carries through the election purely political and indefensible,” the Journal reported. But a month ago he opposed one, saying, “I don’t see how multiple votes on a debt ceiling increase can help get us to where we want to go. It is my preference that we do this thing one time. … Putting off tough decisions is not what people want in this town.”

When Speaker John Boehner released his debt-ceiling plan on Monday, Cantor gave it a, um, thumbs-up by calling it “a well-thought-out and reasoned plan where no side gets what it wants.” That's a ringing endorsement.

Also on Monday, Cantor was caught contradicting himself on CNBC. He attacked Sen. Harry Reid’s debt-ceiling plan because it accounts for declining spending on military operations overseas, before host Larry Kudlow reminded Cantor that both the Republican budget and debt plans also have those cuts:

Cantor: "What Sen. Reid’s plan says is we’re going to raise the debt ceiling $2.4 trillion and we are also going to cut spending but what he does is counts over a trillion dollars in spending that is assumed to decrease and go away anyway which is the spending associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Kudlow: "Yes, but isn’t that in the Paul Ryan baseline also, which is the baseline for Cut, Cap and Balance."

Cantor: "But, but, but … absolutely it is." 

It is no wonder that a majority of Americans, independents, and Republicans believe Republicans in Congress aren’t doing enough to strike a deal.

It won’t get much better thanks to Eric No We Cantor, today’s Worst Virginian in the World!